The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Twenty doses of Ebola drugs have been imported into the country.
The doses are being kept at standby treatment centre at Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital to cover the western part of the country in case of an outbreak and other doses are being kept in Kampala according to ministry officials.
This comes after the National Drug Authority-NDA and National Council for Science and Technology last month gave a green light for the drugs to be used.
The ministry is going to use Mapping Biopharmaceutical Incorporated REGN-EB3 and Remade Sivir treatments both manufactured by Gilead Sciences. The treatment is the same being used in neighbouring DRC.
Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, the Minister of Health says that the treatments were cleared to come into the country three weeks ago. She says that they are enough to handle any immediate need.
The drugs are still undergoing studies and will be used on experimental basis in Uganda.
Recently the health ministry stopped monitoring all Ebola contacts in Kasese who are believed to have had contact with three cases that were confirmed in June.
Dr Aceng says even if the country has stopped monitoring the contacts, Uganda is still on alert until WHO advises that Uganda can be declared Ebola-free. She says the country is still on alert.
Last month three Ebola cases were confirmed in Kasese District.
Aceng says the family of the three confirmed cases that passed away in June 2019 are Ebola-free. The four family members are still in the DRC and in good health after being vaccinated against the disease.
The number of people infected with the disease in the DRC is on the increase. As of July 2, 2019, a total of 2,369 cases of Ebola have been reported in the district with 1598 deaths reported since the outbreak was declared in August 2018.
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